Debria Murphy got her job as billing “specialist” for EMS under false pretenses—she was supposedly an auditor– and it is costing Jasper County money, not to mention costing a good employee her job to make room for Debria.

At the 1/11/16 BOC meeting, County Manager Mike Benton told the BOC, “We do have an EMS Collections issue. Debria was busy ‘running her ambulance’ that she didn’t have time.” Since the audit for the year ended 6/30/15 still isn’t finished, we don’t know what the EMS receivables were at that time nor do we know what they are now, but it appears they are growing and the county isn’t collecting the money it should.

In addition to the lack of collections, we have found that the county is paying money back to “overpayment recovery” (Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield) for EMS charges billed out at an incorrect reimbursement rate.

This is a copy of the check stub written in January 2016.

And here are copies of the requests for reimbursement.Click here. Notice these are all in 2014 after Debria Murphy was doing the billing for EMS.

The Jasper County BOC was warned about Debria Murphy, yet they upheld the firing of Kathy Skinner (11 year EMS billing clerk) and the hiring of Debria Murphy in her place. In September 2013, Putnam County had to pay back $9617.04 to Medicaid/Medicare for EMS billing and documentation errors while Debria Murphy was the EMS billing clerk.You can read other details of Debria Murphy’s work history with Putnam and Jasper County here.

How much will Jasper County eventually have to pay back—and is it on money that has never even been collected in the first place? EMS has many problems and according to our sources, most of them stem from James Gregory’s lack of leadership and Debria Murphy being allowed to do things she isn’t qualified or capable to do. You can read comments with concerns submitted to the blog here.

Why does Debria Murphy still have a job with Jasper County? She was hired under false pretenses, has written payroll checks to employees out of her personal account to cover her mistakes, has failed at collections, and has billed incorrectly.

This BOC doesn’t listen and it has cost the taxpayers plenty. They were repeatedly told about things going on with Karen Degges and Sherry Braley, and now with Debria Murphy.

2016 is an election year. We can elect people that will listen and clean up the mess this BOC has made. Make sure you vote for people that will do the job with the best interest of the people in mind.

Your comments are always welcome.

TWG

Citizens, be informed and stay informed! Only by being informed can the citizens understand what is being done and talked about, and then press our officials to make good decisions for everyone in Jasper County. That is our goal with the Taxdogs blog.

Its a shame they terminated Kathy Skinner when the one who really needs to be audited is Debria Murphy. Seems to me that if someone who writes paychecks out of their own personal checking account, must be covering up more that you would think.